November 8 - Pitelka - Women in EA History

[Anonymous]

Professor Pitelka's talk was very informative and impressive in that he was able to cover so much history in such a relatively short amount of time without overhwelming his audience. I especially liked how he related each of his topics back to a theme which, for us as teachers, is a skill so important in helping students process all kinds of information. I also liked how he avoided the trend of "demonizing" the practices of other cultures. Instead of simply seeing each situation as "good" versus "bad," he was able to show us a more reasoned, complex understanding that helps us to see history in its proper perspective. So often do we miss out on rich experiences when we attempt to categorize and label everything. Understanding the complexity of history is what makes a good historian and a good citizen of the world. I think this is the key to a more global understanding of our world.

[Anonymous]

Professor Pitelka session reminded me of an important lesson that teaching ancient history I need to keep in mind. That althoght many if not all of the civilizations taught in the curriculm are male dominated, that women played a vital role in those societies. They were also able to use power through family roles and be productive to their communities and soceities as a whole.

[Anonymous]

One of my favorite things he brought up was the woman (the names excapes me) who took over the rhrone and placed her youngest son in power. Then when he grew older and wiser and dsired to make his own decisions, she removed him and placed her next son in power, always keeping herself within arm's reach of controlling the government.

I think students would find that interesting.

[Anonymous]

I can not remember the name of the woman either, but the fact that she maintained power was amazing. I can relate that story of Queen Hatshepsut, who did something similar, to my students. But what was her name?? My girls are always shocked when they find out things were very different for women in the past, it's good to let them know their have been powerful strong women throughout history.

[Anonymous]

I found it interesting that you can have someone just join your family if they were good at your family trade. Can you imagine if we still did that here today. How much would that change the face of business? I also liked the queen who was important cause of her husband, then disregarded cause her evil husband was killed, then important again because of her son. Very cool.

[Anonymous]

I was really looking forward to this class and then was too sick to make it. I'm grateful for the insights you leant my in your posts. The foot binding topic sounds fascinating and hideous at the same time. Also, how interesting that men could get divorced, but women couldn't. I wonder how that one got figured out!

[Anonymous]

Professor Pitelka gave us a lot of information. I know that it sounds like women had few rights from what he said, but that was true in European/Western cultures until recently, also. It has not been that long (not even a century) since women have had the vote in the US. Sometimes it seems that we look from our current viewpoint (and a time in history that I think I prefer, as far how we expect to be treated) and don't realize what a difference industrialization and technology have made in our lives.

Thank you for all the resources.

[Anonymous]

What a wonderful way of outlining East Asian history: by the roles of women in various periods and various countries.

One of the highlight's of this lecture had to be Victoria Class' Types of Dangerous Women . It's interesting that the "dangerous" women were all powerful women. Geishas fall under this designation because of their level of education. The Ming Magic women were obviously dangerous in that their supernatural abilities posed the potential for inflicting physical harm. Gossips and grannies and predators all posed a danger by having something that could make men do what they needed, whether it was blackmail information or seductive influence.

This would be a great way of introducing a number of female authors in a Literature class; dividing them up into regions and time periods, etc...

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